The Discovery Phase in Software Development: How It Helps Save Time and Money

The objective of the discovery phase is to allay concerns.

1/ What is the discovery phase?

Before beginning project development, a process known as the discovery phase, or basic research, is carried out. It is concentrated on pinpointing your target audience, their issues, and their requirements. During the discovery phase, you test your idea to see if it can actually solve problems and live up to user expectations.

The objective of the discovery phase is to allay concerns and, in some manner, support your presumptions regarding the app. You can then modify your idea to produce a product that meets the users' needs and expectations based on the feedback and data gathered.

Who is usually involved in the discovery phase?

• A project manager oversees faultless client and team communication, careful planning of the project's scope, and monitoring the project's progress.
• A business analyst is responsible for analyzing the needs of potential users and exploring various options.
• A software architect examines the basic technical specifications and suggests tools and development processes for cutting-edge apps. A software architect is a person who develops the architecture and logic of your product.
• UX designers are responsible for product usability and intuitive navigation. Based on user and product research, UX designers create storyboards, sitemaps, process flows, and interface elements.

2/ What is the purpose of the discovery phase?

The discovery phase of software development aims to anticipate and eliminate risks such as lack of market demand, unexpected costs, and the inability to pay for them.

Errors during the planning stage are the most costly to fix later. Therefore, the primary goal of the discovery phase is to test ideas and implementation strategies, optimizing development costs and speed of product introduction.

Here are the top 5 reasons when mentioning the discovery phase:

• Determine business goals, needs, and product vision.
• Build product architecture to achieve specific business goals.
• Mitigate development costs.
• Identify and downplay possible risks.
• Create a clear product development roadmap.

More than that, the discovery stage also helps you and your business:

Establish corporate goals:

Discovery phase activities include developing the product range, product requirements, and business objectives. It is important to adhere to these goals and track changes to the product throughout the development process.

Understanding What Successful Results Look Like:

In addition to outlining product goals, it is also important to define a sufficient number of goals to achieve successful results. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand what you want your product to achieve.

Conducting user research

You cannot blindly develop a successful product without understanding the needs and desires of your potential users. If a product does not perform as expected, customers will not trust it, no matter how beneficial it is. Therefore, modern applications also have to adapt to the realities of the target area.

Customer journey mapping:

Customer journey mapping helps create a user-friendly product, identifies key touchpoints with which users interact, and considers possible difficulties users may encounter and how to avoid them.

To succeed in today's digital marketplace, MVPs also need to be mapped out in detail. Few customers will come back if the first contact with their application is unsatisfactory.

Going back to our online mortgage application example, the mortgage application process (customer journey) is a factor in product success and conversion rates. It is important to analyze why users are not completing your product journey and what is holding them back - poor UX/UI or reluctance of these users to purchase proposition.

Analyze the competitors:

A thorough analysis of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses is also a vital part of the discovery stage. It helps you find the gap in your industry and understand how your product can fill it. It will also help you to develop your unique value proposition and make your product stand out.

3/ What happens during the discovery phase of a project?

The discovery stage in software development seems like a mystery to most people and some business owners. It sounds deep and complicated, but it's actually a well-established business process. In short, the project search process:

• Get to know your customers and their business ideas (surveys, 1:1 meetings, brainstorming sessions, presentations).
• Discuss existing business processes and conceptualize future projects. During this phase, it is important to match customer expectations and desires with actual deadlines. Define a target group for your product.
• We analyze our competitors and conduct extensive market research.
• Finding the best solutions to business problems.
• Determining scope of work.
• Setting deadlines and priorities. Assign roles and assign expert teams to projects.
• Receive a complete project PRD and proposal.
• Signing of the contract for the discovery phase.

4/ How do you run a discovery phase?

The basic workflow of a discovery stage project depends on the approach taken by the product development company.

Step 1. Gather necessary information and create user stories.

• Target group definition. To get to know your end users, it's important to ask questions such as:

Who are your customers? What pains, problems, needs? What do they think? How will your product help them? How can I connect with them?

• Communication with Stakeholders. Management and all stakeholders should participate in future software project discussions. Conducting interviews, gathering required documentation, and setting KPIs and other metrics are typically done in this step.

• Market Research: Market analysis and market research are fundamental to the project discovery phase. We help you choose your niche, choose the right financial model, develop your business strategy, and assess your prospects' competitive research. Study your competitors, learn from them, improve with their best practices, and be even better!

• Creating user stories. User stories are short, easy to read, and easy to understand for developers, stakeholders, and users. They are organized in a list and can be easily updated whenever new information becomes available.

Step 2. Structural idea:

For this purpose, we use mind mapping. The mind map technique is a visualization technique that helps structure all the information and clearly shows the best solution for a particular product development.

Step 3. Create high-level requirements through workshops:

Creation of a PRD (Product Requirements Document) containing all technical specifications for the product release. It lists all the features we want in future software products. Simply put, if it's not in the PRD, it won't be included in the release.

Step 4. Build your first prototype:

A prototype is an interactive model of software that works as it should. Prototypes help bring ideas to life and prove concepts. A proof of concept (PoC) proves that the idea is technically feasible. It helps validate functional assumptions and identify potential technical blockers.

Step 5. Test and collect user feedback:

Flawed software can have irreversible and long-term effects on revenue generation and reputation. By testing and collecting user feedback, we can create the perfect product that meets all your specifications and requirements.

Step 6. Define Scope of Work

Step 7. Prepare for development (tech stack, code audit, and high-level, architecture):

At this point, we collect all technical documentation (a set of documents that describe creation, installation, configuration, and use of the software), including the results of a code audit and the product architecture (the structure behind your entire project that displays how functional elements of the software interact with each other).

Step 8. Estimate time and costs and create a product development roadmap:

In essence, a roadmap is a step-by-step overview of your product. It provides complete transparency on project timelines, outlines key project phases and milestones, and provides an easy-to-understand development roadmap.

In summary, once you have completed your discovery:

• Prototype
• Estimated time and cost
• Product Requirements Document (PRD)
• Architecture document
• Timetable

The discovery phase of a software project is a critical step in the product delivery path. In fact, it's the first thing you do after you decide to bring your idea to life.

When working with an experienced and reliable company, you will receive a prototype and all necessary documentation. You can jump right into the development process with our team or someone else.